Jisc welcomes RCUK's statement on access to research outputs
Jisc today welcomed the RCUK’s position statement on access to research outputs, saying that the statement represents ‘an important step’ in helping to ensure that the fruits of UK research are made more widely available. With individual research councils beginning to set out their guidance for implementing the RCUK principles, the statement will have major repercussions for the future of UK research.
Published today, the statement reaffirms the RCUK’s belief in the value of repositories as a means of improving access to the results of publicly-funded research. It also restates its encouragement given last year to UK researchers to deposit their outputs in e-print repositories, suggesting that deposit should take place at the earliest opportunity.
Jisc fully supports this principle and is investing significantly in the development of institutional repositories in the UK through its £3.5m digital repositories programme and the £13.8m repositories and preservation strand of its capital programme. Jisc is also supporting the development of UK PubMed Central as a repository for research outputs in bio-medicine. Jisc is therefore well placed to ensure that repositories are available for researchers who wish to deposit their outputs in them, and that the necessary national infrastructure is in place to support access and resource discovery across institutional and subject-based repositories.
Further principles restated by RCUK include calls for rigorous quality assurance procedures through peer review, efficient and cost-effective communication and dissemination mechanisms and the long-term preservation of research outputs.
Jisc wholeheartedly supports such principles, actively promoting them through the programmes outlined above, through its work in the field of scholarly communications, its close links with publishers and its pioneering work in highlighting and meeting the challenges of digital preservation.
Welcoming the RCUK statement, Dr Malcolm Read, Jisc’s Executive Secretary, said: ‘This statement represents an important step in ensuring that the outputs of UK research are made more visible worldwide, and in enhancing still further the international standing of UK research. Jisc warmly welcomes the statement, and looks forward to working with RCUK, with publishers, learned societies and other partner organizations towards our common objectives.’
Further information
Access the RCUK statement, at RCUK
Find out more about Jisc’s digital repositories programme
For further information, please contact Philip Pothen